Studio lead
Priya Raman
Small marketing studio
Problem
Priya Raman leads a three-person marketing studio. A proposal used to be a shared document, but it now eats the weekend because each draft starts from a blank page and a messy discovery call. The team rewrites the same scope language, misses an assumption, and then negotiates it later for free. They do not want Gemini to invent case studies or promise results to a prospect. They want a proposal skeleton that forces scope, assumptions, and exclusions into the open, using notes from the call, so Monday is for editing instead of rebuilding the whole document.
Gemini strategy
The studio built a repeatable prompt that accepts redacted call notes and returns a proposal outline: context, goals, in-scope work, out-of-scope work, assumptions, timeline, and questions. Gemini is told not to create testimonials, metrics, or client names. Priya's verification step is a Monday standup where each section is checked against the recording notes by a person who was on the call. Anything the model smoothed over is either confirmed with the prospect or deleted. Only then does someone write the fee. The prompt lives in their shared library, and they revise it when a proposal question keeps coming back.
Prompts
Build a proposal outline from call notes
You are the operations lead for a three-person marketing studio. I will paste redacted discovery notes. Do not invent metrics, testimonials, client names, or results. Produce a proposal outline with these headings: situation, goals, in scope, out of scope, assumptions, timeline sketch, and open questions. Under each heading, use only facts from my notes. If a heading lacks information, write "Missing, ask the prospect" and draft the question. Keep the tone calm and specific. Do not write a fee. End with a list of phrases that sound like a promise so we can remove them.
Stress-test the scope
Review this proposal outline as a skeptical client. Do not add new services. List where the scope could be misunderstood, where an assumption is doing hidden work, and where we might do unpaid revisions later. For each risk, suggest one sentence we could add or one question we should ask before sending. Point out any sentence that implies a guaranteed business result. Keep your notes as a checklist our studio can use in a Monday review. Do not rewrite the whole proposal.
Process
- 1. Redact the call notes and remove prospect secrets.
- 2. Generate the outline and fill missing items with real questions.
- 3. In Monday review, check every section against the notes.
- 4. Add the fee only after scope and assumptions are confirmed.
Result
Priya's estimate is that a typical first draft now starts on Friday evening and is editable by Monday, instead of consuming the whole weekend. The team still rewrites voice and still loses some proposals. What changed is that exclusions are written down, so a vague request is easier to price as extra work. They caught one invented metric in an early draft and deleted it before sending. Clients have not praised the template. They have asked fewer questions about what is included, which the studio treats as the useful signal.
Lessons
- A proposal prompt should force exclusions, not prettier adjectives.
- Never paste secrets, and never let the model invent proof.
- A human who heard the call has to verify the outline.